The deal has the island’s Shi’ite majority up in arms, interpreting the plan as a thinly veiled attempt by the Saudis to sideline their calls for democratic reforms. Saudi Arabia invaded Bahrain last year to help crush pro-democracy protests.

The exact terms of the union have been nebulous so-far, but officials have said it would unify the Saudi and Bahraini states on security, economic and diplomatic policies. Considering how much larger Saudi Arabia is, many have criticized it as a de facto annexation. The Saudi royal family had also expressed hopes to include Kuwait, Qatar and others in the “union,” but they have been more resistant.

The reason for this 'union' is that when war begins against Iran, and the Shia population in Bahrain revolts, Saudi troops will be able to repress and the justification will be that it's an internal affair.

Johnny_Warbucks

A lot of good those protests are going to do. If anything, they're giving the Wahabis the opportunity to field test that new cachet of weapons the US just gifted them with.

Hanussen

It's the Arabian Anschluss.

W_ThePoster

So being Muslim does fairly little to change the basic tune whereby the endowed stomp out democracy at the first sign it might work to help the poor…